All posts for the month June, 2013

I’m with my cousin tonight and it has me thinking about my very first pair of heart shades. I got them with her in a thrift store in Gainesville. That’s right this blog wouldn’t be the same without a random shopping trip. I saw them sitting there for only ten dollars and needed them! So today is a simple thank you to my cousin and the universe for getting me to that thrift shop to find my first heart shades.

The first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. That’s right, one of the most famous contradictory statements is on my mind this week. I can now finally check it off my ever-growing list of books to read. Chuck Palahniuk (don’t ask me to say that out loud cause I’ll probably F it up.) is one of those authors that everyone knows about for that one single book. You say his name, even if you miss pronounce it, people are going to think you’re talking about the guy that wrote Fight Club, right? His website, appropriately called The Cult because of his status as a cult author, has a great bio written about him by Joshua Chaplinsky that shows that neither he nor Fight Club were an instant success.

As clichéd as it might be, Fight Club is the first Palahniuk that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. Despite it being a little difficult to figure out when our narrator is actually speaking because of the stylistic choice to leave quotation marks off most (maybe all) of his dialogue, this one was a pretty fast read. This is probably because the chapters are on average no more than seven pages and moved through events as quickly as your mind from thought to thought. Or rather, the narrator’s mind from thought to thought.

I don’t think that this book really lived up to the hype for me, which is not to say I didn’t like it. I enjoyed the book a lot, but the problem with reading or watching anything that’s achieved cult status is that if you don’t maintain a certain level of ignorance about it before experiencing it all the surprises are ruined. So if you somehow don’t know the twist about this story but you plan to read it at some point in the future, place a major spoiler protection bubble around yourself now.

Still, I think I would recommend reading this one if you’re in the mood for something different. Palahniuk’s writing style in this book is definitely unique. I can say objectively that I would have had even more fun reading this book if I didn’t already know its secrets. They would have blown my mind if I’d been able to figure them out as I was reading. Maybe if I’d never seen certain bits of the movie it would have lived up to the hype, who knows. (Side note: I’ve never seen the movie all the way through start to finish. It’s always half way over or I have to go somewhere after the first third whenever I catch it on TV.) Either way, if you’ve already seen the movie or you’ve never really gotten around to it, I think the book is great as it’s own work.

If you’re goal when you watch movies is to escape to a place where things are more amazing and wonderful than they are in everyday life, you might want to skip Lola Versus. On the other hand, if you’re the type of person that likes to watch a train wreck in progress, this movie might be right up your ally. I’m still not totally sure how I feel about the movie. I guess at the end of the day I’m left shrugging my shoulders saying, “meh.”

The side of me that appreciates a good one-liner and the ability to capture the feeling of reality in a film really did want to like the movie. I’ve already quoted the line “Who puts your sentences together? Your brain is like a bad DJ” to my sisters and will probably use it again in the future because it tickles my fancy. And I honestly have no trouble believing that some people would make and in fact have made the same exact decisions as those shown in this movie, like *spoilers* doing your ex-fiancée’s best friend and then cheating on him with your ex-fiancée.

The main character, Lola (I’m sure you’ve guessed that part already from the title), makes some truly terrible decisions though. I’m talking hard-to-watch-out-of-shear-awkwardness type decisions. If you can’t handle that ‘cause you feel embarrassed for the character or something, Lola is probably going to embarrass the hell out of you. Seriously, *spoilers again* if a guy I just met was ever to sing horribly to me as we had sex I think I’d be forced suffocate him with a pillow. Or at the very least stop everything we were doing and walk out on him without explanation. I guess when it comes down to it BTs I can’t in good conscience recommend this movie to you even if I got a fun new catch phrase out of it.

Bad news for the clumsy fashionistas out there like me: white is dominating the fashion world right now! Get your best stain removers ready if you want to stay on trend. Elle has recently posted its third Trend Report that has revolved around white clothes being the color to wear for this summer. (Yes I know from art classes that black and white aren’t technically colors, but just go with it BTs.) Even in reports that aren’t so focused on color schemes I find myself noticing white popping up everywhere. Look at some of the more interesting white designs that fashionistas will be wearing soon.

My online art searching has lead me to yet another artist that has redefined recycling. Nikolas Gambaroff used newspapers, advertisements, and other mass-produced images in his 2012 show at Overduin and Kite, a museum in Los Angeles, CA. His process involved layering the papers on top of one another and then painting patterns over the top layer. Gambaroff then tore away the parts that he’d painted on to reveal the underlying layer of the piece. The two layers in contrast give the art interesting patterns. My favorite is the one that looks like a newspaper bull’s-eye. You can definitely see some cultural commentary in these pieces as several of the newspapers and advertisements are still recognizable even after the alterations. Check out the ads for Macy’s One Day Sale and the hit show Dexter in one of his pieces below.

Cher is back in the game! That’s right, the diva is bringing us a new album, Closer To The Truth, this September. If you pre-order it now for $11.99 on iTunes you get the first track “Woman’s World” immediately. The rest of the songs don’t have names listed yet and are instead listed as Track 2 through 11. (Or 14 on the deluxe version.)

Cher preformed “Woman’s World” on NBC’s The Voice in a punk black and silver outfit. If you missed it, the performance is available on YouTube. If you’re not a big fan of the sound quality of live performances you’re in luck because you can also find the official lyric video on YouTube. The lyric video is actually pretty cute – it features drawings of women in the pinup style mixed in along with the typed out lyrics. Check it out!

I can definitely see this song becoming popular in the clubs over the next few months. The beat is very easy to move to and it’s not overly complex lyrically, two of the most important factors to making a club anthem. I can’t wait to see what else Cher has in store on this new album. Finally, something to look forward to in September!

Keep Learning Beautiful Thinkers,

The Boy In The Heart Shades

(My attempt at the crazy tongue thing that Jack from Will & Grace does for his Cher impersonations.)

I decided to take a page from the Bible and make today a day of rest! And what would a day of rest be without wasting time on YouTube? That’s right BORING! So I’ve decided to share some of my favorite ridiculous YouTube videos.

There are only a few days left for The Young Protectors Vol. 1Kickstarter project, but that’s still plenty of time to become a TYP fan and support the comic. Alex Woolfson, the mind behind this web comic, updates the story every Saturday. With the help of pencil artist Adam DeKraker and colorist Veronica Gandini, The Young Protectors (TYP) is an excellent quality comic with a very loyal fan base. The story focuses on the main character Kyle/Red Hot in his process of figuring out what it means to be a gay superhero. There are a little over one hundred pages of the story available on the site so far, but it is a fast and fun read so I’m sure that you’ll be able to get through it in no time, BTs.

The Young Protectors isn’t the only web comic I read, as you all know, since it’s not even the first web comic I’ve mentioned on his site. It sets itself apart from the others that I read by being the most interactive for its fans. Like so many web comics, TYP has a donation box at the bottom of each page, but this isn’t just a donation for the sake of supporting your favorite comic. Woolfson sets a goal: for every $400 dollars donated he produces a bonus page that is released on Wednesdays. That might sound like a lot of money, but since this Wednesday, the eleventh bonus page in a row was posted. I think that proves that TYP fans are up to meeting that challenge.

The bonus pages aren’t the rewards for the fans’ generosity, with the Kickstarter project Woolfson has made sure that fans get their money’s worth when they donate to the project. If you check out the Kickstarter page you’ll see he’s made fun titles to go alongside each pledge amount from Citizen for $10 all the way up to Ultimate Defender of Truth and Justice for a $2,500 donation. (Believe it or not, there actually is a backer that has reached that level.) Each level comes with different extras to go with the book. As the amount raised surpassed the necessary $14,000 for the project, Woolfson created “stretch goals” to be reached while the donations continued to flow in. So far the project has gone over six times the needed funds, making one of the most successful Kickstarter comic projects ever. You’ve probably figured out by now BTs, that part of the reason I picked TYP for today’s post was to show my support and hope that any of you will donate and help unlock more stretch goals. Even if you don’t donate to the project, I hope you become a TYP fan too.